Chapter 3 Drifting

I started to raise the volume of my voice, after what I had just heard I was a little more than out of control I could never in my life allow my father to sacrifice my beloved brother just for his reputation, it was something too pathetic to even think of doing.

While I tried to argue with my father losing control more and more Maya was standing still like a statue, it was as if her brain was having enormous difficulty understanding the information she had received, she observed each of the movements that I and our father made with great attention, her face contained an almost ghostly semblance, it was as if she had become even whiter, her skin pale and her frightened and anguished face gave me goose bumps for being something I had never witnessed before. Maya stood up and walked over to me and my father, when she was finally close enough, she told me that we should just let it go, since there was no point in arguing with him.

"We can't let our father go along with this."

"There's no point in saying anything, there's no need to waste your breath on this."

"What do you mean, Maya? Are you going to give up on our brother too?"

"You know I would never give up on him, but it will be a while before you finally understand."

"Understand what?"

"That we're just products for our father, aren't we?"

"How dare you talk to your father like that?"

"I see that I never had a father, but rather a master, a merchant. If the worst person in the universe were extremely rich and showed up at your door, you wouldn't think twice before trying to sell one of us to him. Hateful is the way you treat your daughters and your family, so I wouldn't be surprised if you really decided to sacrifice Oliver."

At that moment the sound of a slap echoed throughout the dining room, Maya stared at our father with a look of total surprise, he couldn't believe he had hit her, our father was gasping for breath and overcome with rage, my poor sister had her hand on her now red face while I could hardly say anything in May to the whole situation.

"I AM LOSING MY ONLY MALE CHILD; THE FUTURE OF MY NAME AND YOU DARE TELL ME THAT I ONLY HAVE GOODS! HIS POOR MOTHER IS DISTRAUGHT AND STILL HAS THE NERVE TO ACT LIKE A SPOILED GIRL WHO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND HOW THINGS WORK."

"Oliver is going to hang father, you know that."

"Yes, I know. But there is nothing I can really do to stop it; they have plenty of evidence that the act was really consummated and they have both already been brought to trial. The sentence is almost certain at this point."

I asked Maya to step back a little, said a few more words of disapproval to our father, and took Maya to her room. She was far from well, her hands were shaking and her breathing was rapid, her face was still swollen from the slap she had just received and was looking increasingly red. I asked one of the maids to give her something to calm her down and so they did and gave her some kind of tea which made her sleep quickly while I stayed by her side until she finally fell asleep, as soon as I was sure that Maya wouldn't wake up anymore, I went to my mother's room, she was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling, she was looking the same as Maya and that made me even more scared.

My mother was a beautiful woman, she was so vain that she didn't even let herself look her age, always keeping her appearance more than impeccable so that her daughters could be inspired by her and follow in her footsteps as a beautiful lady and a good woman and wife. At that moment she was down, her face was pale and her hands were sweaty, as soon as she saw me in the room she asked me how everyone was doing besides apologizing for making everyone worried, I told her that I already knew everything that had happened and that Maya had an argument with our father that didn't end very well, I felt regret take over me as soon as I finished saying these words, as soon as I closed my damn mouth my poor mother burst into tears. No matter what I did at that hour it seemed that she could never stop crying.

Hours passed and my poor mother remained in her endless state of pain and suffering. It was more than understandable that she would be totally desolated by this news, losing a son is something I would never understand now, I was also losing my beloved brother and I couldn't come to terms with it, I was thinking of some way to free my brother from this fateful end, but nothing came to my mind as I listened to my mother's cries.

I left the room and asked one of the maids to give my mother the same as they gave my sister, they obeyed and I went to the garden of the house. The sun was setting and my heart was totally broken, I couldn't believe that I would lose my brother this way, I felt as if a knife was being stuck in my chest in the cruelest way possible, my soul could leave my body right now and I wouldn't care, it would be less painful in the end.

When night finally fell I went inside the mansion, my father was sitting at a tea table near the main entrance, he looked at me as if he expected me to say something, anything at all, but I was able to say a single word to him, everything I felt for my father at that moment was something I never imagined I would feel, it all boiled down to an endless grudge that took over me, I remember his words, the words he made sure to speak, "I can't believe that my only son would bring me so much disappointment. Those words tore through my body in an extremely painful way, I who was disappointed from the end of my heart, disappointed by the way I finally realized that we meant nothing to him in the end, by the way he gave up Oliver so easily for his reputation. At the same time fear was also taking over me, this man I had trusted all my life had my future in his hands, I could no longer trust him, but in the end, he would decide the course of my life, who I would marry, and how I would live my life, and now I am absolutely sure that even if I am in the most unhappy relationship of my entire life, he would not lift a finger for my happiness.

I continued my way to my room, all the corridors of this huge mansion were totally dark now, the atmosphere of the whole mansion was so heavy that it was hard to breathe, it was as if a great feeling of mourning had already taken over the whole place, there was not a single corner of the house where sadness was not present. I arrived at my room and changed my clothes to sleep and when I put my head on my pillow I could not sleep at all, I called one of the maids and asked her to prepare me the same tea that my mother and sister had had, there was only one way to get me to sleep that night and that was a tea with compounds that I didn't recognize, the maid returned with the tea in hand, although it was very hot I drank it as fast as I could and went back to bed, it didn't take long for me to fall asleep with the feeling that tomorrow would be even worse in my heart.